How to draw swirls illustrations in Adobe Illustrator, Part One

I received several inquiries on how to draw a swirls illustration. Swirls illustration does not require extensive knowledge, only a little practice and a visit of a “Muse”.

One of the problems that beginners face when entering the world of adobe illustrator is proper positioning of the vector control points.

For starters, my advice is to make a circle (use Elipse tool+Shift combination). Select the circle using “Direct SelectionTool”, four basic points and vector controllers (red extension lines).

Draw using “Pencil tool” and practice making various swirls. This is just for practice, we are not making any swirls there, but it is important to play with handles here and try to create some shape for the practice purposes.

Play with “Pencil Tool Preferences”, see how they affect the drawing.

Now, take it to the next step and make a simple “swirl” shape. Something like this:

Then make it’s inner (or outer) outline following the existing line. Connect outer and inner line in order to get closed shape: select two starting points and to Object -> Path -> Join. Do the same with two ending points. Reduce or add points using “Pen Tool” in order to fine tune the swirl shape.

Color the swirl and store it as a Brush or a Symbol. Make a small database of various shapes that will later be used for drawing Swirls Illustrations, like mine “Adobe Illustrator Swirls Symbols” – Subscribe to my newslwtter and download them for free

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31.07.2008.

And here is latest addition – another approach to creating swirls in Adobe Illustrator – Video:

Important notice:
In order to follow this video effectively please make sure that your mouse pointer is always close to “Pause” button, as you will need to press Pause a lot in order to follow this exercise effectively, i.e. by taking the same actions on your computer.

Thank you Rachid for allowing me to use your music for this video!

Love,
S :)

P.S.: You can buy Swirls Illustrations for your graphic designs for $1!

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